Fire and Emergency NZ is funded to respond to emergencies – not create a dire emergency.
FENZ’s failure to plan and focus resourcing on emergency response is impacting on the protection of the community.
In 2022, FENZ agreed “in principle” to a process to employ more than 200 additional career firefighters in order to ensure minimum staffing on fire appliances. Without the additional firefighters, we continue to have fire trucks offline and at times (often weekends) fire stations are closed due to insufficient staffing.
When that happens another truck from a different station has to respond which means a greater distance and therefore likely delays. It also means a greater risk to the firefighters responding.
Any delay can be deadly. FENZ’s own promotional advertising records that three minutes can be the difference between life and death.
FENZ has failed to recruit and resource enough career firefighters to staff fire trucks and keep career fire stations open 24/7.
Firefighters are working unsafe hours with unreliable fire trucks and failing equipment, escalating the risk to their own health and safety.
Firefighters have reported regularly working more than 60 hours a week with some clocking up to 100 hours a week.
Every response to a structure fire means an increase in risk of exposure to carcinogens or other injury. Every medical response cumulates with increasing risk of mental health issues.
It is not just a firefighter staffing dire emergency.
There are insufficient 111 emergency call centre dispatchers to ensure minimum staffing is maintained. Too often only one dispatcher is servicing the whole of the South Island, or dispatchers from other call centres are having to juggle their workload with another call centre’s area to ensure volunteer and career firefighters are responded.
FENZ is failing to provide sufficient support to volunteer brigades. Volunteer Support Officers are struggling under increased workloads and having to work overtime to ensure volunteer fire brigades have essential equipment and support.
Trainers have had their workloads increased without any agreement or involvement in the management of their schedules.
And the staff who work in health, safety and wellbeing are expected to keep going despite their increased workload with no input on necessary staffing levels and other resourcing.
What Dire Emergency?
Firefighters must be able to rely on safe systems of work to protect them so they can rescue and protect you.
To walk into fire, the firefighter must be able to trust there are enough properly trained and experienced firefighters supporting them, that their uniform, hoses and breathing apparatus will protect them.
In recent times, firefighters have not had that confidence.
Fire trucks break down on their way to emergencies. That means there is a delay to the incident as another truck is dispatched. In emergencies every minute counts!
Firefighters have been caught inside a burning building without water because a pump on the truck failed or a hose burst. These failures not only put the firefighter in immediate increased risk, but it impacts on the firefighters’ ability to rescue or the tactics they can use to control the fire.
Dangerous staffing levels
FENZ does not employ sufficient career firefighters to maintain minimum crew levels. The level of career firefighters across New Zealand has barely changed since the 1990s.
Instead of increasing the number of recruit courses, FENZ has reduced recruit courses.
Fire trucks and specialist appliances in crisis
Fire trucks and specialist aerial appliances are failing putting the lives of firefighters and the community at unnecessary risk.
The fleet is old with trucks 20-30 years old breaking down regularly.
FENZ refuses to properly fund occupational cancer testing
A wealth of research has proven the nexus between firefighting and the significantly increased risk of specific cancers.
FENZ is refusing to increase the reimbursement to the actual costs of health monitoring for firefighters.
FENZ “ad hoc” approach to psychological wellbeing
Did you know that firefighters respond to 94% out-of-hospital cardiac arrests? Research in the wellbeing of FENZ career firefighters, 111 dispatchers and other staff has exposed dire states of mental health.
FENZ is refusing to treat agreed mental health and wellbeing residential programmes as training which would assist in removing the stigma of mental health programmes and fund travel and other incidentals.
FENZ refuses to acknowledge Firefighters’ occupational cancer
FENZ continues to fail firefighters with occupational cancer and has regularly been criticised in ACC reviews for not applying the law.
FENZ’s processes cause delays that can affect treatment, causes stress and unnecessarily incurs costs just to have the occupational illness recognised as any other work related injury.
Devalued Firefighters
Firefighters and other NZPFU members have not had a pay increase since July 2023. They are still some of the lowest paid staff in FENZ.
FENZ insists on using a public sector job sizing tool that does not fit operational roles as it does not recognise the qualifications, training and responsibilities of firefighters on the incident ground. As a result, corporate-type roles can earn $150,000 or more for significantly less hours, pressure and impact for the community.
NZPFU members have been working on an expired Collective Employment Agreement for:
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NZPFU members fighting for your safety
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Support NZPFU members in their fight to have FENZ held accountable for the dire emergency and to act for change.
Career Firefighters, Emergency Call Centre Dispatchers, Volunteer Support Officers, Trainers and Community Risk Reduction Officers, and those that look after them are fighting for your safety.
